Lizarraga best choice in District 8: Editorial

Voters in District 8 will complete the new El Paso City Council in a runoff election that ends July 15. Their best choice for moving our city forward is Cecilia “Cissy” Lizarraga.

The runoff between Lizarraga and Robert Cormell will fill the seat being vacated by city Rep. Cortney Niland, who announced her resignation earlier this year. The winner will serve out a term that runs through December 2018. The district stretches from the Upper Valley through South El Paso.

Early voting is underway and continues through July 11 at the County Courthouse, Sunland Park Mall and the YMCA West Side location, 313 Bartlett Drive.

Lizarraga, 61, is a retired educator who has run a campaign largely focused on basics, such as better streets, improving public safety and providing accountable and ethical leadership. She also has promised to be an advocate for clean-energy initiatives, an issue that hasn’t gotten enough attention in local government.

“We need an active City Council voice to serve as an advocate to support and grow clean-energy industry initiatives by investing in solar projects that reduce utility rates for consumers, businesses and public entities,” she said on her campaign website.

Perhaps the overriding issue in this race has become equality. Cormell, 49, has a history of harmful comments about gay people that run counter to El Paso’s long civil rights history.

While running for mayor in 2013, he promised to repeal the city’s ordinance that extended health insurance to domestic partners of city employees.

In a television interview following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land, Cormell noted that homosexuality was considered a mental illness until the 1970s, and suggested that the legalization of same-sex marriage could lead to the redefinition of pedophilia.

Those positions are jarring. Cormell sends messages that run counter to El Paso’s efforts to be an inclusive community that welcomes talent of all kinds.

El Paso faces many challenges in the coming months and years. Our national and state leaders have created a false perception about El Paso and other border communities. Fighting back against this mischaracterization of our community and our people will be key to assuring that El Paso has every opportunity to flourish.

That fight will require leaders who bring people together, not pull them apart.

Lizarraga is the District 8 candidate best poised to help El Paso move forward. The El Paso Times editorial board urges voters in District 8 to vote for her in this crucial runoff.